


take up arms if you want to know more

by thescyfychannel



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Multi, Orgies (implied), Pantheon at War, dead gods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:54:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26181481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thescyfychannel/pseuds/thescyfychannel
Summary: Oriell Vantas is in for a hell of a revelation.
Relationships: Signless/Others
Kudos: 5
Collections: Sloppy Seconds 2020





	take up arms if you want to know more

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Shame_Basement](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Shame_Basement/gifts).



_The gods are dead._

Whispers, if spoken rightly, can be louder than any creature's roar. This whisper went up one dark and gloaming night, racing through the veins of a small town (some day, it would be a city) and setting a kingdom alight.

_The gods are dead._

How could anyone possibly go on?

You're not the type that's quick to anger, you'd say, but most of your friends would argue that you're not the type that's slow. That's fine, in your book—you're as good at forgiving as you are at shouting, and sometimes people need a little noise in their life. What's a world without people willing to shake it now and then? You have shit to do, and sometimes the world needs shit done too. You're not going to get in the way of an entire—

...actually, you're not sure how to term it. "The World" is a more vast concept than you'd dreamed when you were younger, comprising not just the planet, but the people; not just the people, but the planet. You'd learned to layer things in—languages, culture, spaces, magics, religion—anything that added and contributed to and took away from and just, in general, _created_ "The World".

And now, apparently, part of it had been shot through the heart and left to rot.

So you'll be frank: You don't fucking get it. Not even a little bit, actually. So much of what the world is depends on the balance between all of its beings and thoughts and things. True, you've seen the balance shift, even in the scant thirty-odd years you've been alive (getting closer to 40-odd now, you really ought to keep that in mind), you've seen people work for and against it and move and change it, but even _that_ seems to be part of it.

Maybe this is part of it too?

But then the world-balance screams out its _wrong, wrong, wrong_ in your head, and you're sure it's not. It's—

You're still adjusting. To the fact that you're unusual for having it so present in your mind. To the fact that not everyone grew like this, lived like this, with all the shift-change of the world settled over their shoulders, like a mantle, like a cloak, like a shield and burden both. _Does odd things to a man, to have that,_ they'd say. You're not sure what's worse. The reverence in their eyes as they say it, or the concern for you in their voices when they speak. You're fucking _fine_.

Or you _were_ , until some absolute fucking idiot decided that the sensible career choice in their life was to go off killing the fucking gods. Bastard.

* * *

You remain in this frame of mind until eventually (finally) more information becomes available to you. It's not some spear-touting, wannabe "hero", it's an entity of power and might in its own right. And it's not one who hunted down god after god as a solo mission, it's two of them, and also, they're at war, sort of.

You're not sure how you know this, actually. You _do_ know you wandered out into the woods, chasing after the thread of an odd thought and an odder feeling, and somehow, you'd found your answers.

...you have also decided to ignore the fact that you're currently sitting at a campfire with very unusual companions. It's...difficult to explain how your mind works to even yourself, at some points. Attempting to take on something of this magnitude—that is to say, attempting to explain a giant boar, an enormous wolf, a huge deer, and some even stranger furry grey creature, mingling among other possible humans or creatures with human shapes—would require more fortitude than you have in your reserves at the moment.

"—so if there's anything else any of you can add," says one of the ones who's got a slightly more human shape (at least until you tilt your head a little to the right and see the gleam of eyeshine burning bright), "it would be good if we could consolidate all of our knowledge here and now. It's an unprecedented time for god candidates."

The words startle you out of your befuddled musings, just a little. _God candidates?_ That's...huh. What?

Common sense says not to interrupt any of these people. They all have that spark of _dangerous_ , and you'd...you'd just been following that tug that usually leads you down an interesting path, to learning or layering a little more, or even getting laid. But common sense has never been anything like a strength for you, and the person sitting next to you with leaves for hair looks kind of friendly actually. "Hey, what did they mean by 'god candidates'?"

Your voice is a whisper. Every head around that fire, every flicker of attention in that clearing, snaps right to you.

"He's gotta be joking. Right?"

"By all the stars in the deeps—"

"Who the hell _is_ this kid?"

"A god candidate," says the wolf, turning her head to survey the clearing's inhabitants. "Same as the rest of you."

Oh. Fuck. _Shit._

"You are one of those next in line to step up to a seat as a god," chimes in your seatmate, his voice neutral and eyes bright. "There are no limit to how many gods the mortals can have at once, though you seem to be a rather strange case."

"You've been a candidate for as long as you've been alive, it seems," says one of the other humans. They sound almost apologetic. "It usually takes years of study and training for one of us to achieve such a state."

This explains so much, which makes it really weird that it feels kind of like your world view is falling apart. Isn't this just another layer for you to add? Isn't it just something else for you to learn?

"Someone take him home with them and help him sort this out," the deer-creature murmurs. You're guessing he's the oldest, or closest to godhood, by the way all the others snap to attention. "He has a long way to go, even if his feet are on the right path, and the middle of a war is no place to be doing such a thing alone."

Grey-fur makes a noise that you're going to guess is some kind of agreement. Everyone else certainly seems to nod like it is.

* * *

When the meeting ends, you're guided onto a different path than the first one you took by gentle, helping hands. You're pretty sure deer-god said some _one_ , but there's a crowd of curious onlookers tagging along, and you've got another of those tugs that you're reasonably sure means you're going to be about seven different kinds of sore tomorrow—eight, if you play your cards right.

You'll focus on that. It's a lot more pleasant a topic to consider than your apparent impending godhood, than the existence of two warring god-like factions, than the fact that those factions had set aside their differences long enough (or, perhaps, worked in tandem unintentionally) to wage an assassination campaign against each of the old gods that had formerly ruled your world—

Right. Sex. Wild sex, with several types of beings that you've never run across before, and with a few others that you had. With fellow would-be-gods, and who knew how much stamina _they_ might have.

And you might learn a few things. You might add a few layers to your understanding of the world. Hell, you might make some _friends_.

The world might be ending (sort of), but you—you could live with things like this, if it's going to be like that.

**Author's Note:**

> Lore!! Exposition!! Flashbacks (sort of!)!! Prequels!!
> 
> more to come....eventually
> 
> Oh, I've also made a couple of nods to some other properties. Have fun playing Spot That Reference!


End file.
